A "WatchBlog" working to hold Black American leadership, opinion makers, public officials and institutions accountable.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Police in Texas taser torture for low-level, non-violent misdemeanors like disruption of class or disorderly conduct

According to Cameron Langford at the Court House News Service, Police in Texas public schools are increasingly using force against children, including Tasers and pepper spray, and the "overwhelming majority" of police "interventions" involve "low-level, non-violent misdemeanors like disruption of class or disorderly conduct," a public interest group says.
Texas Appleseed claims the Spring Branch Independent School District is putting students at risk and violating the law by refusing to release its "use of force" policy.
More than 75 percent of Spring Branch, a suburb northwest of Houston, is black or Latino. The school district claims its use of force policy is exempt from disclosure because of the exception for law enforcement.
Texas Appleseed says it sent open records requests to 24 Texas school districts, seeking their police departments' use of force policies, and 11 produced the documents. The group say its investigation revealed accounts of police in Texas public schools using pepper spray and Tasers on students.
"The public interest in ensuring full dialogue around policies relating to use force on Texas school children outweighs any risk to SBISD-PD's ability to affect arrests or engage in law enforcement on its campuses," Texas Appleseed says in its complaint in Harris County Court.
Appleseed says that reports of Texas school police using pepper spray and Tasers on school children are becoming more common. It says the data its has received shows the "overwhelming majority of law enforcement interventions on Texas school campuses involve school-aged children cited or arrested for low-level, non-violent misdemeanors like disruption of class or disorderly conduct." Read More HERE

TWB Publisher says: I'm glad to see that a watchdog group wants Info on Police Use of Force Against Schoolkids. It's time to stop the torture of school children in our public school system. Where is the U.S. Department of Justice when we need them to protect our children? Texas is not the only state torturing our children.

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